12 things to do on 12/12/12

» Organize a flash mob at the corner of 12th Avenue and 12th Street at 12:12 p.m. Watch for traffic!

» Remind yourself there are only 12 days of shopping left until Christmas after Wednesday.

» Say something nice to 12 people you do know.

» Celebrate that the end of the world is 12/21/12 not 12/12/12. You still have nine days to live — probably more since it has also was supposed to end on May 27 and June 30 of this year already and there are at least five more scheduled dates for it to end between 12/21/12 and 2280.

» Call your senators and congressmen and remind them there are only about 12 more working days until we fall off the fiscal cliff.

» Buy a dozen eggs (or a dozen donuts for your coworkers).

» Donate 12 cans of food to the Weld Food Bank.

» Pray for a foot of snow.

» Spend 12 minutes complaining this list has only 11 suggestions.

Related Media

Branson Molinar plans to improve his 12-minute run, make a new friend, try a new food and give his father 12 spankings.

However, that’s only four of the 12 things the 12-year-old Milliken middle-schooler plans to do today — his 12th birthday that just so happens to fall on 12/12/12.

Branson isn’t the only one celebrating the special birthday on the very special day that has all the same numbers and won’t happen again until 10/10/10 of the 22nd century.

Many other Weld County kids will be doing special things with their friends and families to commemorate the big day. It is unknown exactly how many kids will turn 12 today in Weld, but The Tribune found 11 of them, and talked to nine.

“Something like this doesn’t happen very often,” said Brentwood middle-schooler Hailey Reeves.

Eaton sixth-grader Jordan Young was excited to celebrate not just his birthday on 12/12/12, but also his golden birthday on the historic date.

A golden birthday is when the age is the same as the day of the birthday. Jordan celebrated with a pizza, cake and ice cream party last weekend.

Birthdays aren’t the only thing people want to celebrate today. There are six weddings planned at the Weld County courthouse, two at 12 p.m.

“It just seemed like a really good day,” Dennis Fetzer, 38, said with a laugh about marrying his bride Dee Dee Madson, 38, at noon. “The time wasn’t planned, though. It was just the only time the judge could do it.”

Tonya Key, 25, did plan the time and hopes her marriage to Jesse Read, 31, will finish at 12:12 p.m.

“It’s the last time this will happen until the next century, so why not?” she said.

The date has caused a bit of dyslexia, too. Many have confused the date with the Mayan calendar’s supposed end of the world date, which is 12/21/12.

“It’s actually kind of funny,” Fetzer said. “We originally wanted to get married on the day that was supposed to be the end of the world, but we thought that was 12/12/12 and then found out later it was 12/21/12.”

A website for Body Mind Spirit Journeys advertised a journey to the land of the Maya in Chichen Itza, Mexico, to commemorate how “the Ancient Mayan calendar speaks of 12-12-2012 as the end of times as we know it, and the beginning of a new cycle of evolution for planet earth, humanity and the cosmos.” It now has a large red “canceled” on it.

Today is a commemorative date in the Mexican culture, celebrating La Virgen de Guadalupe, which commemorates the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage destination in the world in Mexico City. This year is the 481st celebration. Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, 1311 3rd St., is celebrating with song, Mass, dance and refreshments beginning at 5 a.m.

The celebration is what makes Esequiel Salinas, a sixth-grader at Brentwood, excited about his 12th birthday today.

“I share this day with the Virgen de Guadalupe. She is the Virgin Mary. I stay up all night on the 11th to see (Las Mañanitas) on TV at midnight on the 12th,” he said. “La Virgen de Guadalupe is my devoted saint.”

Las Mañanitas is the Latin American version of the happy birthday song.

Even those who have celebrated many 12/12 birthdays said today will go down as the best of them all.

Shirley Allison, who turns 81 today, will celebrate over lunch at Red Lobster with her best friend, Frankie Ballard, who also turns 81.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s any different,” Allison said. “I’m still going pretty strong, but it will be the one I remember most because not too many have it.”